Plastic safety razor

ABSTRACT

A light, plastic razor except for the metal blade therein comprising a plastic cover, a guard plate, a metal blade between said guard plate and said cover, a guard edge juxtaposed below the blade edge and joined to said guard plate, a handle attached to the bottom surface of the guard plate and rectilinearly extending therefrom along a plane which is essentially perpendicular to the bottom surface, which handle is fragmented into three sequential sections, the first section is a nonflexible, rigid plastic member, the second section, which is directly joined to said first section and the third section, is a non-stretchable flexible, elongated plastic member having a cross-sectional area, determined perpendicular to its length, which is substantially less than the corresponding crosssectional area of the first and third sections, and the third section is a non-flexible, rigid plastic member extending from the second section.

United States Patent Stone PLASTIC SAFETY RAZOR [76] inventor: Ray L.Stone, Hemlock Terrace,

PO. Box 567, Croton Falls, NY.

[22] Filed: Dec. 5, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 312,297

Primary Examiner-Al Lawrence Smith Assistant Examiner--Gary L. Smith m3,323,471 [451 July 16,1974

[5 7 ABSTRACT A light, plastic razor except for the metal blade thereincomprising a plastic cover, a guard plate, a

metal blade between said guard plate and said cover, a

guard edge juxtaposed below the blade edge and joined to said guardplate, a handle attached to the bottom surface of the guard plate andrectilinearly extending therefrom along a plane which is essentiallyperpendicular to the bottom surface, which handle is fragmented intothree sequential sections, the first section is a non-flexible, rigidplastic member, the second section, which is directly joined to saidfirst section and the third section, is a non-stretchable flexible,elongated plastic member having a cross-sectional area, determinedperpendicular to its length, which is substantially less than thecorresponding crosssectional area of the first and third sections, andthe third section is a non-flexible, rigid plastic member extending fromthe second section.

4 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PLASTIC SAFETY RAZOR non-stretchable,flexible elongated member connected to oneend to the bottom of the guardplate and on the other end to the handle. The handle is laterallyextended from the plane of the member. This unique structure has ashaving action which one might call a floating action, respondingimmediately to skin projections to give a gentle shave without tiltingthe head onto the guard edge. However, if the handle were inthe sameplane as the elongated flexible member, then the head would bedeflectedupon the guard edge when the head is suddenly deflected by a skinprojection.

I have now found a novel shaver construction which sociated with thehandle and possesses the floating action of my aforementioned patentedrazor, yet the handle and the flexible member are in'the same plane andalong a single line extending from the bottom surface of the guardplate. The structure of my new razor is significantly less susceptibleto deflection of the razor head upon the guard edge when the head issuddenly deflected bya skin projection.

The safety razor of this invention is distinctive in that itpossesses aplastic handle attached to the bottom surface of the guard plate whichrectilinearly extends therefrom along a single plane alignedperpendicular to the bottom surface. The handle is fragmented into threesequentially interconnected sections, a first section which isnon-flexible and rigid, a second section which is flexible andnon-stretchable, and a third section which is non-flexible and rigid.The sequential order of each section of the handle extending from thebottom surface of the guard plate is the first, second possesses anon-stretchable and flexible component asand third sections in thatorder. The cross-sectional area of the second section is substantiallyless than the corresponding cross-sectional areas of each of the firstand third sections. 7

The handle with its various sections can be constructed of the same ordifferent plastic material and as a single piece or from a plurality ofpieces. In the preferred embodiment, the razor handle is made in asingle mold from one thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic.

exceptthat if the handle is made of a single plastic, the second sectionshould be either long enough or thin enough or a combination of both toprovide the desired flexibility.

ln this invention, the term non-stretchable" means the inability tostretch at room temperature (about The length of the handle is notcritical to this invention l 2 FIG. 1 contains two components, shavinghead A and handle B. FIG. 2 emphasizes handle B.

The shaver of FIG. 1 consists of cover 1, guard plate 3, blade 2, guards4, and flat guide edges 5. These elements are explained in my US. Pat.No. 3,571,927, and

col. 2, lines 50-75 and col. 3, lines 1-62 thereof are incorporatedherein by reference to the extent such per- 'tains to elements 1-5 andI0 disclosed therein.

With respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, handle B is attached to the bottomsurface of guard plate 3. As shown, it contains three sections 8, 9 and11, in which section 8 corresponds to the aforedefined first section,section 9 corresponds to the aforedefined second section and section 11corresponds to the aforedefined third section. In the case of FIG. 1,section 9 is a thin and flat piece while section 9 of FIG. 2 iscylindrical. The crosssectional area of section 9, determined across aperpendicular to the elongated axis thereof, is typically much smallerthan the corresponding cross-sectional areas of section 8 and 11.

The flexibility of handle B is dependent upon the thickness of section 9at its narrowest dimension. By such thickness, one can control thefloating action of the razor. y

In use, section 8 (corresponding to the first section) separates theshaving head A from flexible section 9. It

is desirable that the length of section 8 should not be shaving head Aand thereby minimizes the deflection of head A upon guard edge 4 whenthe blade hits a skin projection or is used on a heavy or dense hairgrowth. If section8 were eliminated and section 9 were directlyconnected to the bottom surface of guard plate 3, such deflection of theshaving head-Awould be prevalent.

. The handle, as with the remainder of the shaver (other than theblade), is made of plastic, preferably one which has a 1 percent tensilemodulus of at least 10,000. This means the plastic is not rubbery and isnon-stretchable. The plastic is one which can be shaped I t bysuchmolding processes as compression molding, transfer molding, andinjection molding. Illustrative of suitable plastics are thermoplasticssuch as nylon, polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene,polycarbonate, poly(oxymethylene), ABS block copolymers,polyvinylchloride, and the like, and thermosetting plastics such asphenol formaldehyde resins, resorcinol formaldehyde resins, melamineformaldehyde resins, polyurethane resins, epoxy resins, nd the andThough this inventionhas been described with respect to a plurality ofdetails, thereof, it should not be limited thereby, nor is intended tobe so limited except as recited in the claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A light, plastic razor except for the metal blade therein comprisinga plastic cover, a guard plate, a

metal blade between said guard plate and said cover, a

guard edge juxtaposed below the blade edge and joined to said guardplate, a handle attached to the bottom surface of the guard plate andrectilinearly extending therefrom along a plane which is essentiallyperpendicular tothe bottom surface, which handle is fragmented intothree sequential sections, the first section is a honflexible, rigidplastic member directly and non-flexibly connected to the bottom of theguard plate, the second section, which is directly joined to said firstsection and the third section, is a non-stretchable flexible, elongatedplastic member having a cross-sectional area, de-

termined perpendicular to its length, which is substan- 5 tially lessthan the corresponding cross-sectional area of the first and thirdsections, and the third section is a non-flexible, rigid plastic memberextending from the second section.

one-fourth inch.

1. A light, plastic razor except for the metal blade therein comprisinga plastic cover, a guard plate, a metal blade between said guard plateand said cover, a guard edge juxtaposed below the blade edge and joinedto said guard plate, a handle attached to the bottom suRface of theguard plate and rectilinearly extending therefrom along a plane which isessentially perpendicular to the bottom surface, which handle isfragmented into three sequential sections, the first section is anonflexible, rigid plastic member directly and non-flexibly connected tothe bottom of the guard plate, the second section, which is directlyjoined to said first section and the third section, is a non-stretchableflexible, elongated plastic member having a cross-sectional area,determined perpendicular to its length, which is substantially less thanthe corresponding crosssectional area of the first and third sections,and the third section is a non-flexible, rigid plastic member extendingfrom the second section.
 2. The razor of claim 1 wherein the secondsection is cylindrical.
 3. The razor of claim 1 wherein the secondsection is a thin flat piece.
 4. The razor of claim 1 wherein the firstsection has a length not greater than about 1 inch and not less thanone-fourth inch.